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First published online June 16, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 2581-2593 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01679

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Do seasonal changes in metabolic rate facilitate changes in diving behaviour?

J. A. Green^1,*, I. L. Boyd², A. J. Woakes¹, C. J. Green³ and P. J. Butler¹

¹ School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
² Sea Mammal Research Unit, Gatty Marine Laboratory, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 8LB, UK
³ British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: j.a.green{at}bham.ac.uk)

Accepted 10 May 2005

Macaroni penguins were implanted with data loggers to record heart rate (fH), abdominal temperature (T_ab) and diving depth during their pre-moult trip (summer) and winter migration. The penguins showed substantial differences in diving behaviour between the seasons. During winter, mean and maximum dive duration and dive depth were significantly greater than during summer, but the proportion of dives within the calculated aerobic dive limit (cADL) did not change.

Rates of oxygen consumption were estimated from fH. As winter progressed, the rate of oxygen consumption during dive cycles (s_O2DC) declined significantly and mirrored the pattern of increase in maximum duration and depth. The decline in s_O2DC was matched by a decline in minimum rate of oxygen consumption (s_O2min). When s_O2min was subtracted from s_O2DC, the net cost of diving was unchanged between summer and winter. We suggest that the increased diving capacity demonstrated during the winter was facilitated by the decrease in s_O2min.

Abdominal temperature declined during winter but this was not sufficient to explain the decline in s_O2min. A simple model of the interactions between s_O2min, thermal conductance and water temperature shows how a change in the distribution of fat stores and therefore a change in insulation and/or a difference in foraging location during winter could account for the observed reduction in s_O2min and hence s_O2DC.

Key words: macaroni penguin, Eudyptes chrysolophus, diving, seasonal change, oxygen consumption, thermoregulation, cADL

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